Just because you're a good person, doesn't mean you can't have a _bad_ influence on ppl...
Still in New York, and it's getting colder still. Today it was about 13degrees Celsius, and rainy most of the day. We're busy busy as usual, no sleep-ins for me this weekend either, though at least my cold is getting better.
Last weekend I went to BALTIMORE to finally, after what, seven or so years of only internet contact, see my friend Andrew and his wife, Kathy. A really good idea, I must say. I had a WONDERFUL weekend, again, thank you so much! Went down by bus, some confusion about the time to get there, so somewhere towards the end I started panicking a bit about maybe having caught the wrong bus. Luckily I hadn't. Andrew picked me up at the station, we went by his house on our way to pick Kathy. Then it was time to feed Mr Tapeworm (our relief engineer Travis used to say I was living in a symbiotic relationship with Mr Tapeworm) and we went to Appleby's, a typical American family diner. I thoroughly enjoyed the meal, very good food (and yes, the company too;). On our way home we went past a book store with sale. Not good. Not good at all. Though now I've at least gotten a fair way on my xmas shopping list=). Luckily I didn't pack more than half the bag I had brought...
Saturday we went to the yearly Maryland medieval fair. Much much bigger than I thought it would be. Much fun, we sat forever in a car queue (what is it with America and car queues?) to get the last couple of miles, almost managed to hide the car from ourselves, and saw a few good bands (mostly Scottish, for some reason), loads of shops with interesting stuff, and a jousting match at the fair. I found a couple of nice horns for Halloween, and Andrew got himself a kilt. I challenged him on the Strong-man thingy (where you have a sledge hammer and try to get a thingy to go all the way up to the top), but we were equal there, so no one won. That sledge hammer was REALLY heavy!
Andrew and Kathy are very early risers, and thanks to my cold I was, as well. Sunday we went to a mall, I managed not to buy too much more stuff, hooray for me=) So, Andrew and Kathy are LOVELY people, but they seemed to take me to way to many good stores to shop... Bad influence.... t-t-t-t *shaking head* oh, and ERIKA - got a present for you from them, and I know what it is, and YOU don't.... Hahahahahahaha *sweet revenge*
NEW YORK. The day we got here it was foggy, all the way to the first bridge. We were a bit worried that we wouldn't se anything, but luckily it cleared up enough for us to see some of the city, though the sky was grey. As we had some time before the tide was right, we took a small detour around the statue of Liberty and up the river.
The first weeks we spent next to a golf training range. It's protected by netting, but even so quite a few golf balls made it through the net. Most days we found a ball or two on deck, and sometimes a mark that wouldn't rub off. Now we've moved a bit, so no more golf balls to duck for=)
Being next door to a gym managed to get me motivated enough to sign up for a month. Did some yoga classes, and something called zumba - 45min of energetic dancing, everything from Charleston to hip hop. Though now, with guests coming so often and us not knowing how long we're staying, I haven't signed up again. I'm going to try and do some stuff onboard instead, wish me good luck, I'm sure it'll be as always - I'll manage for a day or so, and then it's just back to maña maña...
Next week I'm looking forward to going to Stomp with Kaz and Yves. Have been wanting to see that one for quite some time now=)
Halloween - we're celebrating that onboard this weekend, and I've just made my second pumpkin ever! Cool, huh?
Bad Mita
Yes, I know, I'm lousy at writing diary's. But at least I'm trying. So, here goes;
First; the cake above was the birthday cake I got last Monday. A Pancake-cake! *very happy* If you happen to wonder about the shape of it, one of the nicks they've got for me onboard is Porky (since I eat quite a lot) Good birthday, thank you for texts and mails! Got a new, wireless headset as a present from the crew, very much appreciated since I'd managed to break mine a couple of weeks ago.
Talking about a couple of weeks ago; I've bought a very cool painting from an artist I've been thinking about about a year and a half, ever since I spent a weekend in Biarritz in Southern France. I haven't seen this particular painting, yet, but it looks sooo cool on the picture.
Made by Stéphane Braud in oil, under water. No, I'm not pulling any legs, he actually goes down to the bottom of the sea and paints... I think this one is made on a depth of 24m or so. *happy about my painting* Can barely wait until I get home in December for three or so weeks.... Maybe beginning of week 51 - just after the 6th or so of January.... But I haven't bought any tickets, yet, so....
CHICAGO. Looks pretty small on the map, at least the central bit. But it's not, when you start walking. Our berth was in a marina at McCormack Center. Apparently it didn't exist. At least according to the taxis. We gave up trying to get them to come to us. Internet didn't work in the marina, and walking to the closest internetcafe took about 30min, at least. Subway was another five or ten minutes.
People here really like their cigarett boats. Smallish sleek boats with lots of power and sound. Fisrt night in Chicago we were sitting on the foredeck having a beer or two. Even lots, and drinks to go with that. Someone got the bright idea to test the water balloon sling shot. Lots of moving targets in the marina; boats going in and out. Then, a bit later, JAson, the chef went overboard. AND he took Yves (captain) with him. GOOD work. Then it ended up with everyone going in. I was the last one being thrown in, it took them quite a bit of effort to get me over the side. I almost made them give up. At least the water was warm=)
Went to my first (and only) baseball game. I'm not much of a looking-at-sports-person, and baseball isn't the most exciting kind of game to watch. But an experience. Chicago Cubbs lost.
Blue man group. www.blueman.com. REALLY REALLY AMAZING. They do shows in Europe and USA/Canada. A must see of possible. Three funny men playing with paint and making wonderful music on recycled pvc pipes. A bit like Stomp, I think (haven't seen them yet, so I can't say for sure).
It took us a while to get out of Chicago; while servicing the engines onboard the company doing it managed to explode one of the cylinders. NOT good with owners coming onboard and wanting to leave.
MACKINACK ISLAND. Cool place. Smelt wonderful (like horses) No cars allowed on the island; only bikes and horses.
TORONTO. Forgot to babble a bit of my time there. Finally got a pair of sunglasses I've been looking at for a few long months. Maui Jim, reeeeeaally expensive, but looking goooood=) And good for the eyes. Hard to find glasses I like that are polarised and have brown lenses.
We went to a hypnotist's show, Mike Mandel. I got up on stage to try and get hypnotised. Didn't work on me this time either. Oh well, I guess I'm just too self-controlled to let go enough, and it's more fun watching the poor people on stage anyway=) Got a couple of his brainsoftware-cds, and at least the memorypower one I like, haven't listened to the other one, relaxing and de-stressing, as yet.
One of hte last nights we went up into the CN Tower, pretty cool, too bad the sun set so early. That's where I found the moose in the picure below. Poor David was petrified, but he did good. Real good, at least until the guys decided to give him a bit of a scare. T-t-t-t-t *shaking head*
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia. Back to salty water again *sigh*. It was sooooo good to have a summer of fresh water. Now everything is back to being sticky and likely to rust whenever you turn your back to it. The Monday, first day we were there, we were off. As was the rest of the city, more or less. Bank holiday or something. Kind of boring walking around a city were almost everyhing is closed. We did manage to get hold of the newly released Heroes. Then the rest of the day was spent with the crew watching "just one more episode" of Heroes. That trend kept on for the rest of the week. I'm still two or so episodes from the end of season one, just haven't had the kick in the butt I need to watch the last ones. There's always something else to to. Or someone else to have to tv. Blah, boring sports....
Lobster. Apparently the lobster here is among the best in the world. I tried it. Cooked in two different ways, and no, I still didn't like it. The crew went off for dinner at a restaurant. Sheesh ppl got drunk. We had lots of fun, but poor staff. Trevor (Travis) came out. And got us into the Dome, the local huge partyzone. Cool establishment, the que outside makes you think you're in Stockholm, but it's a few floors and lots of different dance floors inside. Trevor talked the talk and got us into the Dome, passing the que without actually stopping in it. *go trev, go trev* Before that I got to try a body shot. Not me doing it, though. I still don't shot. But it was a fun experience. Even though too much salt was used and I had a very salty belly button for the reminder of the evening.
Leaving Halifax for New York was interesting. A REALLY foggy morning. Didn't see shit. Hooray for radars!
